Image via 9NEWS
Diverting from our usual political discussion, Mediabistro’s TVspy blog:
Shortly after a dog bit KUSA anchor Kyle Dyer on-air last week, the station’s news director, Patti Dennis, called up every news director in Denver and implored them not to air footage of the bite.
Dennis told TVSpy last week that she urged her fellow news directors to “show respect” because the video was “traumatic to people at KUSA.”
Despite Dennis’s pleading, one news director, KDVR’s Ed Kosowski, decided to go ahead and air the footage.
Since the incident involving 9NEWS morning host Kyle Dyer earlier this month, the station has been very aggressive in removing uploaded copies of the footage of the dog bite–even though, as Westword pointed out late last week, other 9NEWS footage is easy to find that obviously hasn’t been subject to the same claims of copyright violation. At the same time, many will side with the request by 9NEWS, ignored by FOX 31, to refrain to showing the most graphic moments of this footage–out of “decency,” a desire to not sensationalize, or simple professional courtesy.
Anyway, it’s become a widespread enough topic that we figured a reader poll was in order.
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and Lord knows the news media in general does not “self-censor” coverage of other individual’s tragedies so why should they expect the courtesy be extended to them?
Die by the motto . . .
Please don’t air this because it may be traumatic to someone (i.e., us) — a new standard of the moment for “journalism” at KUSA?
Don’t grab a strange dog, no matter how nice it is, by the face and kiss it. I probably would have made the same stupid mistake in the heat of the moment. She was relieved that the dog was safe and she loves dogs. But it was stupid and the consequence was not only that she got a bite to the face, but that the dog is now labeled dangerous. People should know about both and understand how easy it is for ANY dog, no matter how sweet, to snap in that situation after such a stressful morning. Idiot owner should have taken the dog to a vet, not to the TV station. Dyer should not have grabbed it by the face and kissed it. The only decision here that wasn’t stupid was the station’s choice to air the footage.
Maybe the next owner whose dog is miraculously rescued will have seen this footage and will go to the vet before exposing the dog to a stressful news broadcast environment. Maybe the next anchor “interviewing” a dog will pay attention to its body language and allow its owner to handle it. Maybe some kid with a high-strung dog will remind his friends not to kiss its face because he’s seen what happens when a dog is grabbed and forced to accept a kiss.
9NEWS is not helping anyone by trying to downplay the significance of either the injury or Ms. Dyer’s culpability. You DO NOT EVER act the way she did with a strange dog, especially one with jaws that can fully envelop your face. She owes it to the public to be candid about her stupid behavior.
I feel really bad for Dyer but the first thing I thought when it came out that she had stuck her face in a strange dog’s face for a kiss was, what kind of idiot does that? I don’t care how friendly a dog may be or how much your own dog loves kisses, anyone with a lick of sense ought to know that that when it comes to a dog who doesn’t know you, especially one being held or restrained and therefore feeling vulnerable, don’t suddenly invade that dog’s space with your face.
This could also be an opportunity to teach people that children too young to be counted on to remember common sense instructions, such as don’t get in the doggie’s face, need to be closely supervised and reminded at the time about safe behavior around all dogs, including friendly ones.
Poor Kyle Dyer did a very stupid thing and is paying a very stiff price for it. I Wouldn’t wish having half a lip ripped off on anybody. The only positive would be to focus on teaching sensible behavior. Human behavior, that is. Neither Dyer nor the owner (a warning that the dog was under a lot of stress, being the center of all this fuss, so be careful about getting up so close and personal would have been wise) were being very sensible but the dog was just being a perfectly normal dog.
I agree with your points, especially the one about the dog’s presence in general, but don’t think Fox31 is being altruistic here.
IMHO, if they were, this video is a good one to make your point; there’s only the shock of the bite, no blood or anything that makes it a big, gory mess from the camera’s view. It makes the point without the return of breakfast.
The only lesson I learned was to not get hurt when the two rescuers are on duty. Did you see the video? They both immediately check the dog and didn’t make any move to help, or even look at Dyer. I understand not getting up and rushing over when a large, uncomfortable dog is between you and the woman it just bit, but looking couldn’t have hurt.
Happily, the dog is now at home after being released from quarantine. It’ll probably never hurt anyone again and live the rest of its life spoiled rotten. Except when the grandkids are riding him around, steering by the ears… http://www.denverpost.com/brea…
What was the dog’s owner saying and why didn’t he control the dog? The picture I saw, it appeared that Kyle was trying to calm the dog and the owner did not caution her…
If the victim is a woman, somehow it turns out to be her fault….the boyles response.
Dyer had been petting the pooch all over the head, but mostly around the mouth, for maybe fifteen, twenty seconds before bending her head down for the kiss. The dog didn’t jump up to bite, Dyer came down.
What does Boyles have to do with anything? Well, how does it turn out to be sexist would be my first question. The Boyles part second.
holding the dog on a very short leash.
However, it doesn’t matter how short the leash is if you put your face right in the dog’s face.
I see him now. I mistook his clothes as a uniform. That guy looks pretty good for a grandpa.
Thanks for the correction, Ralphie and ModerateGal! Agreed about the leash and I think the rest of my comment stands.
I haven’t seen the video, and don’t care to.
I heard he got ticketed for violation of the leash law – if so that’s outrageous.
The day before the attack happened, when the dog went after a coyote and broke through the ice on the lake and had to be rescued, he was not on a leash. That’s why he was able to go after the coyote, why he went out on the lake, why he went through the ice, and why he had to be rescued.
If that’s the incident to which the charge refers, I think it is justified.
I thought he got ticketed because of the attack. He was justified in getting a ticket for letting the dog run loose, maybe even paying for the cost of the rescue. The news clip I read said he got a ticket even though his owner was holding him by the collar in the studio.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Holding the dog’s lead?
That is why I mentioned boyles. he uses the incident to attack Channel 9, Patty Dennis, etc., etc.,
There is a sadistic element, IMHO, to showing a woman being mauled by a dog. I don’t think it is something to dwell on or try and make ratings out of it.
I think this is a warning to us all — be careful around dogs that are not your own (therefore unpredictable). I’m with PCG — I love dogs, and I might have made the same mistake. If you saw the whole scene, she had been petting the dog for some time, and he/she seemed to enjoy it. The mistake part was trying to kiss him on the face. This same dog might have been fine anywhere else, any other time. She was not remembering the dog had just lived through trauma the night before — submerged in ice cold water for 30 minutes until rescued — then brought early the next morning to a strange studio with unnaturally bright lighting.
It was a tragedy, pure and simple. Lots of human error — not just Dyer’s. The dog should not have been there so soon after the escape. The important part is, Dyer is okay.
The dog should not have been in the studio so soon after the rescue. But who could possibly have known?
I would show any footage that would increase ratings.
Any.
Ratings trump all.
There is no other goal than ratings.
about this tonight in our Week One Obedience Class, on how to approach a dog you don’t know.
My heart goes out to Kyle Dyer. I can’t think of a single person I’ve ever met that hasn’t petted a dog the exact same way and I feel such deep sympathy for her and for her horrific injury. I feel for the dog who now has a permanent mark on his record, for his owner, for just about everybody involved in this incident.
I don’t think it’s gratuitous of Fox 31 News to have shown this video. It’s all over Youtube. In a way, I’m almost grateful they have shown it in the hopes that by seeing this, it will help people understand that you do not approach a canine the way you approach a human being and adjust their behavior accordingly.
Couldn’t have said it better myself – of note, I’m a proud dog owner and I adore my dog
I pray for Kyle Dyer and I hope she has a solid recovery
Why would you try to remove footage from the internet? It’s damn near impossible anyway.
I can understand that friends and family of Kyle don’t want to see the footage over and over, but all they have to do is what I’ve done. Don’t watch it!
I have no desire to see that footage, so I haven’t watched it and it’s been really easy for me not to.